IS IT THE PITCH OR THE PLAYER?

Voice of Sport with Dan Grimes

Argentina captain Lionel Messi recently took a shot at the 2019 Copa America saying that its pitches are shameful, that it is hard to control the ball and carry it and that with this ground, the ball looked like a rabbit that was going all over the place.

This experience could have happened to any one of us during countless different games and, even if it really wasn’t you that was having an off-day, we all know a pitch moaner when we hear one.

What’s a pitch moaner, you ask? That is someone who blames their first touch on a bobble or can’t play the full game because the surface is too hard on a knee injury that was picked up 10 years ago.

Some concerns are perfectly legitimate, where others are poor excuses. However, unless presented with a well-pruned grass field or state of the art artificial surface, these complaints are inevitable.

This time, the criticism didn’t come from a standard pitch moaner but instead directly from the five-time Ballon D’or winner and arguably the greatest player to have ever lived.

He was being questioned about his sub-par performances after Argentina beat Paraguay last week in the quarter finals of the South American Football Championship and his response was to blame the state of the playing surfaces in Brazil.

Messi currently sits 24th in the list of performers at the tournament, according to WhoScored’s average match ratings, and throughout his career has been the man upon whom Argentinian fans have rested all their hopes.

They need him to be firing on all cylinders and aren’t afraid to let him know when he isn’t. Currently, he is being outshone by Philipe Coutinho and Alexis Sanchez, who are ranked first and second respectively. Ironically, the two men who have been torchbearers for sub-par performances in club football this year, may have been held back by the fields they were playing on in the regular season. There is something reassuring about the idea that Messi suffers from the same footballing issues as the rest of us. It makes him more real. However, if a man renowned for his exquisite touch, control and dribbling abilities cannot deal with an uneven surface, what chance do the rest of us have? More importantly, what chance does a young player honing their skills have?

We can debate until we are blue in the face about who the greatest male football player of all time is and there are many opinions such as new Ronaldo or old Ronaldo, Maradona or Messi. In truth, everybody’s top 10 would be different. One thing that we can agree on, however, is that we appreciate these players and their phenomenal abilities.

I would rather that we could have a time where Beckenbauer, Zidane and Messi were all taking to the field for their teams. Are we hampering the chances of this dream happening with shoddy playing surfaces? If Messi at the peak of his powers cannot deal with a poor playing surface, what would 12-year-old Messi have done had he been subjected to the same level of pitch throughout his childhood?

I understand there are a number of factors that contribute to a child’s ability, namely the amount of time they spend practicing and then the level of coaching they receive to channel their talent. Though, are we needlessly restricting the potential of young players by not giving them the correct tools to develop? It makes sense in any walk of life. You can place a test in front of an intelligent young person who had the best teacher for a year and if you give that person a pen that doesn’t work, he or she will struggle to complete it.

In the UK, 83 per cent of amateur games are played on council owned pitches which, by the Football Associations own admission, are in ‘an abhorrent state.’ As a football coach in Bahrain, I can tell you that many facilities here are also not up to scratch.

So what are the solutions? Obviously money plays a huge part in all of this and without adequate funding there are no possibilities which are suitable. For me personally, I prefer to play on grass and not artificial turf but in terms of being cost-effective we have to consider a combination of both.

My first suggestion is producing side by side pitches, one of artificial and one of real grass. This would enable a decision to be made on a day by day basis which facility to use. Grass has a natural ability to repair itself so it can be managed and would mean the artificial turf didn’t get overused and would also require less maintenance.

The second is that there is a separation of facilities between youth and adult football.

A six feet, six inch tall man, weighing in at 16 stone charging around a field putting in slide tackles will degrade the pitch much quicker than a bunch of 12-year-olds having a kick about. If we separate the pitches to be youth and adult only then will we have a greater chance of keeping them in the best possible state for the development of young players.

Ideally, we would have fantastic facilities for all age groups that everybody could enjoy but owing to the fact there are financial constraints, I believe that youth football should be prioritised so that we do not miss out on enjoying the next Messi.

For all the adults who still want to continue to live out their dreams as the greatest footballer to have ever existed, you still can. Have a poor game and blame the pitch.